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Judge rules to close Moyer

Keenan Dorsey, head of school at Maurice J. Moyer Academy, stands in the hallways while students change classes. A Chancery Court judge ruled Friday that the charter school will close at the end of the school year.(Photo: JENNIFER CORBETT/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo

The Maurice J. Moyer Academic Institute’s long fight with the state is likely over after a judge rejected the charter school’s legal attempt to stop the Department of Education from shutting it down.

A Chancery Court judge ruled Friday that the Wilmington charter school that serves mostly black, low-income students will have to close at the end of the school year.

Moyer leaders said Friday they had not had time to comb through the ruling yet and decide whether they could appeal, but head of school Keenan Dorsey said his immediate reaction was “shock, just complete shock.”

“Everything the state wants for education in Wilmington, we’ve done it in the past few months. Our students have grown, academically and socially,” said Dorsey, who took the school’s helm this summer. “And, now it just seems like all that’s for nothing.”

Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard said in his written ruling that the school failed to show that the Department of Education acted in bad faith during the revocation process.

He said while it is “natural to be sympathetic” to the community’s desire to keep Moyer open, “it is the responsibility of state officials … to make the tough decisions concerning whether a charter school is meeting its obligations under the Charter School Act.”

The judge’s ruling ends a legal battle that began in November when the city of Wilmington, the charter school and a handful of parents filed suits to reverse the Department of Education’s October decision to close the school.

State officials say the school’s test scores were slipping and the school was not complying with the state rules on curriculum and special education.

Attorneys for Moyer argued before Bouchard a week ago that the school recently changed leadership and was trying to improve performance.

However, Bouchard found that the school did not show evidence that its students have a constitutionally-protected right to graduate from the school they started at.

“Even if they did, plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that it is reasonably probable they were not afforded due process,” Bouchard wrote.

Wilmington officials said they disagreed with the ruling.

“Obviously I think it’s the wrong decision,” said New Castle County Councilman Jea Street, who supported the lawsuit. “At some point, somebody is going to have to answer the question of where these kids are going to get an education that is better when where they are now, because the public schools they’re going back to are as bad or worse.”

Department of Education spokeswoman Alison May said the state will continue to help Moyer’s families find the best replacement school. The school choice deadline for students is Jan. 14.